Graphical Visualisation of the MCNP Mesh Tally File

Abstract

This paper presents an updated version of the MTV3D (Mesh Tally Visualization in 3D) program with Windows graphical user interface for visualization of the MCNP-based mesh tally files. Several improvements over the previous program version are addressing better figure export functionality ("Save as" option), switching between linear and logarithmic values on axes, dynamic figure scaling in active window, inversion of relative errors from “max” to “min” values, etc. MCNP is a well known and widely used general purpose Monte Carlo computer code for neutron, photon and electron transport simulation through arbitrary three-dimensional configurations. An important feature of the MCNP code is a graphical display of the simulation model using auxiliary program, such as X-window server, which is useful for geometry error-checking during model setup and visualisation of Monte Carlo results from a mesh tally file (i.e. meshtal file) over a structured xyz mesh. Such inspection of the model is useful for the end user, providing an insight of the Monte Carlo convergence process in a phase space and effectiveness of the selected variance reduction parameters in shielding calculations. Basic features and functionalities of the updated MTV3D program are presented on some selected hybrid-shielding problems involving ADVANTG3.0.3 and MCNP6.1.1b codes.